E-Paper
Sofia Coppola says she has to fight for a tiny fraction of the budget of what male directors get: ‘It’s frustrating’
Sofia Coppola opens up on the culture of the entertainment industry where as a female director she is always fighting to budget her movies.
Sofia Coppola's latest release, Priscilla, is one of the most well-reviewed films of the year. The film first premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival in September, where it was greeted with a rapturous 7-minute-long standing ovation and ultimately won Best Actress for Cailee Spaeny. Now, in a new interview with BBC News, the director shared that it is 'frustrating' how as a female director she has to fight to get a budget for her movies to get made whereas her male counterparts receive massive budgets for their movies. (Also read: Sofia Coppola interview: ‘I wanted to tell Priscilla and Elvis Presley’s love story without judgement')
Sofia Coppola opens up on budgeting her films
Speaking to BBC News, Sofia said: “I just see all these men getting hundreds of millions of dollars, and then I’m fighting for a tiny fraction of that. I think it’s just left over from the way the culture of that business is. It’s frustrating, but I’m always fighting to get it, and I’m just happy to get to make my movies independently and find people that believe in them.”
The director, who has made films like Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides and Somewhere, further added how there's a freedom with how she makes her films despite the budget issue. “There’s a challenge and a freedom in making things small because if you have a big budget, you have a lot of input from studio executives, and I would never be able to make a movie like that. So, I have that freedom, and then you have to be really crafty, and it was really hard, but I had the best team," she said.
About Priscilla
Priscilla stars Cailee Spaeny as the teenage Priscilla Beaulieu and chronicles her whirlwind relationship with Elvis (played by Jacob Elordi), whom she met as a 14-year-old. It is based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, written by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon. An excerpt from the Hindustan Times review read, "With cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd's scrutinising lens and editor Sarah Flack's carefully crafted beats, Sofia builds what could be a fairy tale gone wrong. She fills the room with darkness in daylight."
Entertainment! Entertainment! Entertainment! 🎞️🍿💃Click to follow our Whatsapp Channel📲 Your daily dose of gossip, films, shows, celebrities updates all in one place
